If Jesus is God, why did he say the Father is greater than him?

Jesus makes this statement in John 14:28, and Christians have historically understood it primarily as referring to his humbled, incarnate state during his earthly ministry—the Son voluntarily taking on a lower position and role while remaining fully equal to the Father in divine nature and essence, the same way a king temporarily disguised as a servant remains fully a king even while occupying a lower role.

A smaller but notable group of contemporary theologians has argued this reflects something deeper: an eternal ordering of authority between Father and Son that exists even outside the incarnation, without implying any inequality of essence or worth. This view, sometimes called "eternal functional subordination," became the subject of a significant public theological controversy among evangelical scholars in 2016, and it remains genuinely, actively debated rather than settled.

The historic, majority Christian position locates "greater" specifically in Christ's incarnate role and mission, not in his eternal being.